Data Sheet-The Circle

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Title: The Circle
Author: Dave Eggers
Date of Publication: October 8, 2013
Literary Period: Contemporary Novel
Genre: Science Fiction Novel
Describe the setting and then explain the relevance of the setting.
  • Architecture, Sculpture, Glass, TRANSPARENCY
  • All of the buildings are made of glass to contribute to the theme of general transparency and knowledge being available to everybody, including the location of everybody. Yay, extreme visibility.


Themes (These statements should be complete sentences and completely developed ideas)
  • Human Rights: Eggers questions the extent of human's rights to privacy and the extent to which technology should be allowed to be required in life.
  • Surveillance: Eggers reveals the problem with surveillance as at first it seems reasonable and helpful, but when it goes too far it becomes dangerous but by then it is too late to stop it.
  • Privacy: Eggers shows that privacy is a necessary part of the human experience as Mae's most restorative and real moments are when she is alone with Annie, Kalden or Francis and she can speak freely

Plot Summary (Please do not copy and paste. Simply list the high points of the novel) - Consider creating a visual flow chart or graph and posting it here. (Beginning, Middle, End)

Beginning:
  • Mae gets accepted as a new employee at the circle, Annie hazes her with her old cubicle and Mae has a panic attack
  • Mae gets acclimated to the circle, does really well for a newbie.
  • Mae goes to a party, drinks a lot, meets Francis by a waterfall
  • SeeChange: Users can now place tiny cameras everywhere
  • Mae goes home for the weekend, her father is very sick
  • She can't keep up to the social media and has an incident with Alistaire and Portugal
  • LUVLUV presentation, Mae is horrified when she is investigated onstage by Francis
  • Mae's father had a seizure, Mae rushes home, old boyfriend Mercer was introduced
  • Mae goes kayaking alone and finds some seals
Middle
  • Mae goes back to the Circle, realizes how much she missed
  • Mae goes to the clinic, gets her health monitor bracelet
  • Mae gets her parents on the Circle's health plan
  • Mae meets Kalden with some lemons, becomes really frustrated when he won't communicate with her
  • Mae spends an allnighter on her PartiRank
  • Mae spends the night with Francis, learns about his family, he films them being intimate
  • Governor Santos goes entirely transparent
  • Kalden takes Mae to sex cave
  • CircleSurvey, Mae answers survey questions now
  • Kalden bathroom sex
  • Mae goes home for dinner, Mercer is there, heated debate
  • Mae steals a kayak
  • Caught by SeeChange camera, goes transparent now
End
  • Mae plays tour guide to all of her viewers
  • Likes Francis again now that someone else likes him too
  • Annie is jealous of Mae
  • Mae gets called to the doctor because a viewer has been monitoring her eating habits
  • Parents blocked the SeeChange cameras
  • Mae goes home, confronts parents, gets a letter from Mercer who is living in the woods now, gets her parents having sex on tape
  • Mae and Francis have sex, he makes her rate him
  • Bailey wants all voting through the Circle
  • Mae goes crazy cause 3% of people want her dead
  • Annie's background is not pure, Annie goes crazy now too
  • New tech to find criminals, a crazy mob finds and drives Mercer to suicide
  • Ty is Kalden and he tries to get Mae to stop the government control by the Circle
  • Mae turns him in, book ends with Annie in a coma and Mae wondering what she's thinking

Memorable Quotes and their SIGNIFICANCE.
  • COMPLETE THE CIRCLE
    • The main theme, becomes some menacing idea of what happens when the Circle is complete and the company has complete control over everything and everyone's technology.
  • SHARING IS CARING, PRIVACY IS THEFT, SECRETS ARE LIES
    • Broad ideas that summarize Eamon Bailey's ideas about knowledge and how everything should be available to everyone
  • "My god, Mae thought, it's heaven"
    • The initial view of the Circle as a utopia on the outside shows how people are only interested in outward appearance, and how the Circle is focused on making everything amazing looking
  • "I want to be seen. I want proof I existed"
    • Everyone at the circle has a need for validation and a technological presence, so they forget about the value of interacting personally with others. They only rely on immediate gratification to be happy.



Describe the significance of the opening scene.
  • In the opening scene, the Circle is described as being or resembling a utopia. Mae initially describes it as "Heaven"
  • The stones with simple commands etched into them reveal the eventual theme of the workers at the circle needing simple command and guidance to do anything, they are not self sufficient and cannot even breathe without being ordered
  • When Mae encounters her fake cubicle it reveals the tendency of the Circle to manipulate and mess with their workers, and their ability to gain information about their backgrounds


Describe the significance of the closing scene.
  • The closing scene revealed the true extent of Mae's thirst for complete knowledge, as she turned in Ty and is continuing the Circle's takeover of technology
  • Annie is in the hospital, and Mae's final thoughts at the end of the story are about how terrible and unfair it is that Annie is having all of these thoughts while in her coma that Mae is not privy to. Instead of worrying about Annie, Mae focuses on the fact that Annie is being selfish for not sharing her thoughts, showing that she will never accept other people's privacy

Describe the author's style and provide examples from the text.
  • Incorporating Allusions of modern art
  • He talks about the statue that is reaching through the computer screen to impact other people's lives, and the people at the circle think it's the artist's first positive, not ironic piece when it really is commenting on how the personal interactions are inhibited by the computer screen.


List importance characters and their significance.
  • Mae: Yikes
  • Mercer: Mercer is the voice of reason in The Circle, which eventually gets silenced. His old timey views are in direct opposition to the forward thinking views of the rest of society. He resembles a Christ figure, who attempts to change and help society, goes into hiding, is found, tortured and eventually sacrificed.
  • Ty/Kalden: Romance with Mae, he's mysterious and unavailable to the point where she is going crazy and begins to hate him for not telling her everything. Knows of the Circle's corruption and wants Mae to help him change it
  • Francis: Francis is needy, Mae's sexual partner because he is so insanely available and transparent all the time, direct contrast to Kalden and how mysterious and unavailable he was. He needed Mae to rate him because he requires validation
  • Annie: Mae's mentor/BFF, She relishes her feeling of superiority over the rest of the workers, and she goes into a coma when people find out her family is not as prestigious as she wanted to believe
  • Alistaire: Needy as hell, he cries and has a mini panic attack when Mae did not go to his Portugal meeting, he assumes she hates him
  • Dan: Dan kayaks
  • Eamon Bailey: The friendly face of the company, he is curious and believes the Circle will help
  • Tom Stenton: The Shark, he is the aggressive force behind the circle's conquering of the government

List important symbols from the work and their significance
  • The Shark: The shark symbolizes the Circle and it's ability to consume and destroy everything else in it's path, it also represents Stenton and his role as the aggressor in the Wise Men
  • The Seahorse: The seahorse represents Ty, as it is reserved and does not interact with the others, and it creates all of the children but then leaves them and remains detached.
  • The Octopus: The octopus represents Bailey, as it is curious and interested in its surroundings, appears friendly and happy
  • Glass/Transparency: Everything in the Circle HQ is transparent or made of glass as a visual representation of their desire for complete knowledge and no secrets. They can see everyone no matter where they are in the circle because hte walls are glass.